NFU president Tom Bradshaw
The NFU will use its conference today (February 25) to call on the Government to set a new course for British food and farming, starting with a reset in the relationship with farming families who the union said were still 'reeling' after the Chancellor's Autumn Budget.
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In his first opening address at the NFU's annual conference, being held in Westminster, NFU president Tom Bradshaw will highlight ‘how the cashflow crisis, botched agricultural transition and rock-bottom business confidence, compounded by the hammer blow of the unexpected family farm tax, are preventing investment and growth'.
Treasury
But Mr Bradshaw will also emphasise that the NFU remains focused on providing solutions, as demonstrated last week when the NFU offered the Treasury a solution to its Inheritance Tax policy in the form of the ‘clawback' initiative, which was subsequently rejected by officials.
Speaking to more than 700 farming members, politicians and stakeholders at the conference, as well as hundreds more online, Mr Bradshaw will say: "Our conference this year is framed around the foundations for the future. However hard things are, we must meet the challenges ahead.
Food security
"There were only 87 words in Labour's manifesto about farming, but some of those words gave us hope for the future; policies on imports, binding targets for British food for the public sector, a recognition that food security is national security.
Inheritance Tax
"We recognise these are still early days for a new Government, but new Ministers had hardly found their way to their offices when they broke their first promise. And it is one which overshadows all else, wiping out our ability to plan, to invest and, often, to hope. It hangs over our farms, our families, our futures: the family farm tax."
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He will go on to say that the policy is ‘morally wrong' and that he has received hundreds of ‘desperate messages' and taken ‘hundreds of panicked calls'.
"I worry about the tenant farmer whose home and livelihood may be taken away because a landlord is often better off taking their land back in hand. I worry about former tenants too. People who have scraped everything together, risked it all to finally buy their farm and are now facing an unpayable bill.
Next generation
"I worry about the next generation, whose entire future in the industry is now in question.
"Most of all I fear for elderly farmers. This is not just money, this is blood, sweat and tears. The farm was their life's work, but as they have grown older, the farm has also become their pension – because that's what they were told to do. That all changed without warning."
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Family farm tax
He will go on to highlight the flaws in the family farm tax in terms of economics.
"The claim made by Treasury that 73% of farmers will be unaffected by this tax has long been debunked.
"And it is not just the NFU that thinks the Government's figures are wrong. All major opposition parties have said so. The agricultural valuers say so. The [Confederation of British Industry] says so. Even Labour's own tax advisers say so. All of the UK's major supermarkets have called for the Government to pause and consult.
"We commend the principled Labour MPs who have had the decency to speak out.
"What the Chancellor has said, is that nobody has offered alternative solutions. So, last week, all the UK farming unions and several other organisations took a solution into Treasury. And what happened? They simply sent us away, with the sound of a slamming door ringing in our ears."
He will say that the industry ‘will not go away, will not stop and will not give in'.
"We will fight the family farm tax until ministers do the right thing.
"Then we can move on. Because it is not like producing the nation's food has got any easier in the last 12 months. I have never seen such a crisis of confidence in our industry.
Cashflow crisis
"This Government needs a reset with farmers, where they face up to the reality of how much the industry is struggling. Bad policy, geopolitics, unprecedented weather have left some sectors of UK farming in the worst cashflow crisis for generations. Many farmers are genuinely worried about how they will make it to the end of 2025."
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Environmental Land Management
In his address to delegates, he will say that the building blocks for the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme 'are not working' and neither is its delivery.
"For so many farmers, from tenants to landowners, from the uplands to the lowlands, the Sustainable Farming Incentive remains a promise – not a reality.
"Today, we repeat our calls for an uplift in Higher Level Stewardship payments. I'm calling on Defra to urgently publish the full ELMs offer, and to commit to publishing transparency of progress within Defra and the impact assessments that we have repeatedly asked for, so we understand what this policy means for food production and what it will deliver for the environment.
"With the geopolitical situation and climate change, the Government should be prioritising food security, as they promised to do before the election. It has the opportunity to set a new course."
Policy blueprint
Mr Bradshaw will then launch the NFU's new policy blueprints, which provide a detailed vision of what is needed to underpin 'confident, sustainable, profitable farm businesses', while producing food for 70 million British people, protecting our precious countryside and helping ministers achieve their policy aims.
"For 117 years, the NFU has shown that when we work together, we so often get it right.
Flood recovery
"In the last year alone, we have won a £60 million flood recovery fund for our industry, secured 45,000 seasonal worker visas for 2025, ensured fairer labelling rules for the egg industry during avian influenza outbreaks and toughened the legislation on livestock worrying and equipment theft.
"The Government now has a statutory duty to report on food security. New legislation has finally been laid in Parliament to ensure fair and transparent contracts for UK dairy farmers. Seven of the UK's major retailers have added a ‘buy British button' to their websites. And nearly half a million students have learnt about farming this year through NFU Education."
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Government reset
He will say there is ‘so much more to do' and there is still time for this Government to 'reset its relationship with farming and rural Britain, as Sir Keir Starmer told conference he would in 2023'.
"If Ministers work in partnership with us to deliver these blueprints, and finally do the right thing on the family farm tax, then the foundations of the future will look a lot brighter," Mr Bradshaw said.
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